The Last Man Standing
by J.Lynn.o5
Summary: Carl Grimes has spent the last ten years trying to survive, and coming to terms with the fact that anyone he'd ever known, is now gone. Without the guidance of his father, he's left to take on the apocalypse alone. Now, a decade later in NYC Carl and his best friend Jessica face a whole new set of challenges; but will the pain of his past prevent him from moving forward?


**Authors' Note: ****So I've had this idea for quite some time and decided to just post it and see what you all think. This is obviously a story about Carl and takes place about thirteen years after the current events of the show, so keep an open mind. I will eventually get into how everything happened through flashbacks but be patient, because some will come sooner than others. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and I will continue if people are interested so please let me know :)**

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**The Last Man Standing**

**Chapter One: Ten Years**

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"Ayo, Grimes! Get ya' ass out here; we're makin' rounds in ten minutes bro, c'mon!"

Carl rolled his eyes at the muffled voice and the three consecutive pounds on the outside of his dusty hotel room door. It was like they hadn't heard a fucking word he'd said to them the night before. Like it entered in one ear, and left the other.

He wasn't going on any runs today, as a matter of fact, he wasn't even leaving the perimeter of his crappy hotel room at all.

He could hear the engines revving through the window, and the slamming of the doors as the group were most likely packing the car with weapons. He tuned the outside noise out though, and sat back in his chair as he circled his coarse, worn down fingers around the edge of his fathers' badge. The word "Grimes" still stood out along the front of it, despite the tarnished finish that seemed to decay with the years gone by. However, tainted or not, it held just as much value to him as it did the day his father placed it in his hands.

"I'm going to head out babe. You sure you want to be alone today? I told you, I can stay with you. You don't have to be here by yourself" a very attractive brunette asked as she threw a jean jacket over her red tank top, and lifted her leg up onto the chair next to Carl; tightening the laces of her boots.

Carl briefly looked over towards her and then shook his head in response, "Thanks Jess, but I'd much rather be alone today"

She let her foot drop back onto the floor and then swung her long straight brown hair in front of her, pulling it into a bun and wrapping a rubber band around it.

"Okay" she said with a slightly saddened face and gently placed a kiss on the side of his forehead, "I'll be back soon"

Carl grabbed a hold of her hand before she could turn around and pulled her back towards him, kissing her softly on her lips, "Be careful Jess" he whispered softly.

"Always am" she affirmed with a smile and then gave him another kiss on the lips, "I'll be back soon"

Carl nodded and Jessica made her way towards the door, shutting it behind her.

He wasn't going to lie, even though Jessica was more than capable of protecting herself, he still worried about her going on runs without him. In this world you just never knew when the last time you'd see someone would be. No matter how strong or swift a person was, you just never knew.

Jessica meant a lot to him. She was the first person he'd been able to talk to after everything happened. The first person he opened up to, the first person he allowed himself to care for. He'd been with her ever since. Traveling all over the place trying to find some kind of safe haven. They'd been with a bunch of different groups, most of them not long enough before they decided to take off on their own.

Finally when they reached New York City they found their current group. They had just crossed over the Goethals Bridge, into a suburb called Staten Island when they ran into Davis and Flynn. They helped Carl and Jessica out that night, letting them stay with them in some warehouse close to the water. That's when Carl and Jessica realized that Davis and Flynn had something going that was worth staying and sticking around for this time.

They had a group of about sixty people, hauled up in some Hilton Hotel in Manhattan. They cleared out the entire sixteen story building, and secured all exits with contraptions of some sort. They'd been there for close to a year and had developed quite an interesting strategy to clearing out the entire borough.

They explained to them that every couple of days since they'd been there, their group would lure hundreds of walkers into the abandoned Staten Island Ferry boats, and two of them would carefully drive the boat to both Brooklyn and Staten Island, releasing them there and then returning to Manhattan afterwards. They said they'd cleared nearly 3/4ths of the entire borough, and once it was completely free from walkers, they'd have an entire island, surrounded by water that they could live safely in. Not to mention that NYC was filled with millions of stores and gas stations, so the amenities needed to survive was just endless.

It didn't take much convincing before both Carl and Jessica agreed to join their group, and within a couple of years they had managed to completely clear Manhattan of walkers, giving them a safe and secure place to live, finally. However, in the last couple of years they've began to notice that the world of walkers outside of Manhattan, seemed to be growing extremely weak. When making runs to outer boroughs for things, they were noticing shriveled up bodies, and walkers who no longer had enough strength to run after them. It was like they were finally dying, and beginning to suffer the effects of starvation. However, since every other borough surrounding Manhattan was also surrounded by water, they were unsure if this was happening all over the country or not, so they decided to venture out every other week to different areas, to see what was going on. Of course they'd also scrounge for more supplies while out, because it never hurt to have more; but the main purpose was to find out if this piece of shit apocalypse was finally starting to come to an end.

Even though their group was filled with pretty skilled people, Carl still worried about Jessica. He would be able to handle it if he lost her, if she never returned, if she was killed.

As he fought back the urge to just get up and go after her, he remembered how aggravated she'd get when he did so. When he'd worry about her and make her feel less capable of handling herself. He fought against his urge, even though it killed him to do so. The car engines revved off, eventually fading completely and he knew they had left.

In efforts to distract his thoughts, he got up from his chair, slipped the badge into his pocket and walked over towards the bed; kneeling down to pull out a bottle of beer he and Jess had stashed underneath. Crashing the side of the bottle across the table, the tin cap flew off onto it; the sound echoing through the quite room. Carl effortlessly chugged half the bottle in one gulp and then placed the remainder of it on the table.

He walked over to the bed and plopped back; his arms extended above him and his feet still resting on the floor. This was a hard day for him, and as much as he really wanted to be alone, he was beginning to question whether or not he should have done so. The memories, the grief, the final moments; they were all flooding through his mind at rapid speed. The overwhelming feeling of anguish pouring through him as if it happened just yesterday.

_Today marked ten years. _

Ten years since the worst night of his life. Ten years since he'd lost the only man he ever loved. Ten years since he was left completely lost and alone.

_Ten years._

Ten years since his father was ripped to shreds right before his eyes.

It was essentially hard to deal with every year, or every day for that matter; but this time around it hurt just a _little_ bit more.

It had been a decade since he'd seen him, a decade since he'd heard his voice. Time was moving so fast and he couldn't even believe that he'd made it this long himself. He almost didn't. After his father was killed, he almost gave in, almost let the world take him under, willingly. Until he found Jessica, that is.

Regardless, the pain of the memory ten years ago still haunted him. Sometimes he wished he would have just died that night with him, or the night before with the rest of them. Beth, Maggie, Glen, Carol, Tyrese, Sasha… they were all goners. And then just 24 hours later, before Carl, Rick, Daryl or Judith had anytime to process the loss of their people, they were attacked again by a heard of close to two hundred. This time, the victim being his father. Daryl took Judith and ran off when the camp was invaded, but it wasn't long after that Carl found a trail of blood and an abandoned crossbow by the river, along with Judith's worn down stuffed rabbit. Carl knew at that moment that he not only lost his father; but it was official, he lost Judith, and Daryl too.

Everyone was gone. _Everyone_.

His whole life seemed to flash before his eyes. Loosing everyone and anyone who ever meant anything to him. The world was infested with walkers all around him, and at just sixteen years old… _he was the last man standing_.

Carl's face clenched and he quickly sat up, reaching over to grab the remainder of his beer from the table, and chugging it till there wasn't anything left. It was going to be a long day, and something inside him really wished he would have told Jessica to stay with him.

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